


All the Times His Lips Touched Hers

by spellwovennight



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergent, Carnival, F/M, Happy Ending, Kelpies, Life threatening situations, Monster of the Week, Not Graphic Depictions of Violence but still, Violence, Wendigos, after 3a
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-12 23:10:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2127966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spellwovennight/pseuds/spellwovennight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A month after the trio's sacrifice to the nameton, there has been no sign of additional supernatural creatures in Beacon Hills, which set Stiles on edge.  Is the Hales returning from Beacon Hills a good sign, or bad?  And, just maybe, Stiles might find himself over Lydia before he realizes it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All the Times His Lips Touched Hers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [closter333](https://archiveofourown.org/users/closter333/gifts).



> This was written for the Teen Wolf Summer Exchange for closter333. Thank you to AmbySplash for the beta. Any mistakes are my own.

It was a month since the lunar eclipse and most of the supernatural creatures seemed to have disappeared from streets of Beacon Hills. Jennifer’s (or was it Julia’s?) dead body was found in the preserve a few nights after the eclipse. Deucalion seemed to have vanished. Derek and Cora had left town and, thankfully, taken Peter with them. Even the twins left, after Scott wouldn’t just let them into his pack. Scott had been ready to give them a chance to prove themselves, but Isaac and Stiles had not forgotten what had happened to Erica and Boyd, nor were they the forgiving type. Scott had apologized to the twins, and said that his betas’ came first. Stiles had chewed Scott out for that. _He_ wasn’t Scott’s beta, Stiles had told him. He was 100% bonafide human. Scott and Stiles were partners in crime, and Stiles couldn’t be commanded by weird wolfy powers. Secretly, however, Stiles was pleased that Scott considered him part of his pack.

So, all that was left in Beacon Hills was a teenage alpha with one beta and a banshee. The result, unsurprisingly, was peace. A whole month and there hadn’t been any weird suspicious behavior nor had there been any random deaths. Lydia wasn’t screaming or ending up in random places just to find a dead body (Stiles was ashamed that he hadn’t figured it out that Lydia was a banshee. It just made too much sense, but how was he to know that she had changed into a mythical creature? Or that banshees, who were part of the fae mythology and not lycanthrope, were even real?). Thankfully, there just weren’t any dead bodies to be found. And it was making Stiles anxious.

Deaton had said that the sacrifice that Scott, Stiles, and Allison had made would bring darkness to their hearts and supernatural creatures to Beacon Hills. The former had certainly came true, Stiles thought absentmindedly rubbing his hand over his chest as he drove to school on Wednesday morning. It wasn’t horrible, and he didn’t regret doing it, but anytime he thought about that night or the supernatural world, he felt like his heart had gone missing. If he could bottle up emptiness, he thought, this was what it felt like. Stiles pulled into the school parking lot and jumped out of his jeep. He spied Scott over by his dirt bike and went over to greet him.

“Don’t you think it’s weird?” Stiles demanded.

Scott looked blankly at him. “What’s weird? Wait, did something happen?” Scott’s face rapidly went from confused to concerned.

“No, man. _Nothing’s happened,_ ” Stiles stressed.

“Oh,” Scott said visibly relaxing. “Then, what’s the problem?” He and Stiles started trudging up the steps to school.

Stiles rolled his eyes. “C’mon. It’s been a month. The whole ‘Beacon Hills will become a supernatural beacon’ thing? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. It’s been quiet. Abnormally quiet. I’ve barely seen _your_ wolfy face lately, let alone any other big, scary magical creatures. That can’t be good news!”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s a good sign. Quiet is good, Stiles. Nothing has been trying to kill us, and we’re all alive and healthy.” Stiles snorts. “Your dad isn’t that unhealthy Stiles. I’ve actually kept my grades up, and Allison and I have been talking. These are good things.”

Stiles made an outrageous noise in his throat. “Exactly! Good things don’t happen to us! Not anymore! Ever since you were turned into a hairy creature we are. Not. Allowed. To. Have. Nice. Things. Haven’t you noticed that? I mean think of how your and Allison’s relationship went up in flames or my dad almost losing his job. What if this is just the calm before the storm? Bad things are bound to happen, Scott. Horrible, ghastly things. And you’re going to say ‘You were right, Stiles. I should have listened to you.’” Stiles paused. “Or not, because you’ll be _dead_ ” he hissed as they entered the school.

Scott rolled his eyes. “Maybe Deaton was wrong.”

Stiles’ eyes bulged. “Are you kidding me? Maybe Deaton was wrong? You always listen to Deaton. You trust the freaking cryptic man. But, nooooo. Just because he said something you don’t want to believe in doesn’t mean he was wrong. You’ve just-“

Scott stopped walking in the middle of the hallway causing the morning rush to bump into him from behind before splitting around him and muttering harsh names under their breath.

“Scott, buddy? You okay” Stiles asked, risking student loathing as he stopped next to Scott and also began blocking traffic.

“Don’t freak out.” Scott said slowly. “I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but I’m not sure it’s a good thing either.”

“What?” Stiles demanded turning his head around him as he tried to find the cause for Scott’s abruptness. Stiles desperately tried to ignore how dread was quickly sank to the bottom of his stomach.

Scott merely pointed straight ahead. Stiles whipped his ahead around and looked straight down the hall.

Cora Hale was getting books out of a locker.

Stiles narrowed his eyes and rapidly approached her.

“What are you doing here?” Stiles asked lowly.

Cora turned to him with one eyebrow raised and then turned back to the locker. “Going to school.”

Stiles ground his teeth. “You and Derek left Beacon Hills and took Uncle Creeper with you. What are you doing back?”

“Going. To. School.” She repeated.

“Yeah, but why - wait, seriously?”

Cora rolled her eyes and shut her locker. “Yes.”

“But that doesn’t even make any sense. You didn’t even want to be here when you weren’t in school. And, why didn’t you just get you’re GRE? Wouldn’t that be easier? And faster? What grade are you even in? And don’t give me some bullshit answer like you did when you told me how old you are.”

Cora pursed her lips before she answered, it looked like she calculating something, although Stiles couldn’t imagine what. “I tested in to senior classes. _I_ wanted to get my GRE. But Derek won that fight.”

“I wonder how many broken bones that resulted in.” Stiles mumbled.

“Six. I broke Derek’s clavicle, right ulna, left tibia, and three ribs” Cora responded with a small smile. A proud one.

Stiles mouth fell open. Six bones! He imagined Cora and Derek fighting. He hadn’t seen Cora fight too much, but he knew Derek was strong and practiced. The amount of force and muscle that Cora would require to beat Derek would be impressive. Cora in her sports bra, perspiring as she fought with her brother popped into his mind. Her muscles straining as she pulled on his arm at just the right angle to have it crack, her body gracefully and flexibly moving out of the way from Derek’s advances, her breathing becoming heavy as she vaulted over him and her chest would be heaving. He started wondering what she would look like doing other strenuous activities when Scott interrupted that chain of thought.

“Is he okay? I can’t believe you broke your brother’s bones”

Stiles and Cora both rolled their eyes.

“Dude, he’s a werewolf. He’ll be fine. He’s most definitely healed from worst. Remember when we thought he died? He like fell from an entire story.” Stiles turned to Cora. “But if you broke all the bones, how did he win?”

She scowled. “Cutting my throat out. Not actually” She continued when she saw Scott’s horrified expression. “Just nails to the throat. I surrendered.” She then shrugged her shoulders and swung her book bag onto her back. “I’ll win the next fight. I’m better at strategizing than he is, and I will be able to adapt to his style.”

“Why come back to Beacon Hills? Why not go to school somewhere else, “ Scott asked.

Cora remained silent for a full minute, and surprisingly, Stiles let the silence be. As they waited for her response, Stiles wondered if they were going to stick around for a while. He found himself hoping that they would. He’d learned to trust Derek, and he thought Cora had a better head on her shoulders. There had been so many life or death situations taking up their time that Stiles never really got to know Cora. He remembered spending the night with her when they learned about Paige, and when they tried to stage a rescue mission at the hospital. Stiles had been so scared for his dad, and then Cora was also dying. He had been terrified of losing anyone that night, so he fought for her. Hell, he helped save her. That night he had craved for Cora to wake up and snap at him. Maybe, if she was staying, he would actually be able get to know her. He hoped she chose to come back and it wasn’t something else that Derek pushed on her. Maybe she actually wanted to get to know him. To get to know all of them.

“How much activity have you had around here?” Cora finally asked.

Scott’s brow furrowed. “Activity? Lacrosse is over and there’s cross-country. Nothing strenuous. Were you hoping to join a sport?”

Stiles exhaled deeply. “Yes, she moved back to Beacon Hills to join our fantastic water polo team that has won two games in six years.”

“Volleyball is actually more of my sport” Cora replied dryly.

Scott looked completely lost. “But our volleyball team is worse than our water polo team.”

Stiles and Cora just stared at him in disbelief.

Man, Stiles thought, Scott even knows my sarcasm voice. Was used to it. Grew up with it. Should be almost one with it. It was my sarcasm to his naivety. Was he _that_ in denial about the supernatural possibilities?

Cora turned and faced Stiles. “I’ll take that as a no. I’ve been hearing a lot of things. There’s been a lot of movement up this way. We couldn’t just –“ Cora paused, clearly hesitating. “We came back.”

Stiles watched her walk off to class and wondered what she was going to say. He wondered if they felt guilty, or compelled or if they genuinely wanted to help them because they viewed Scott and pack as equals. Stiles wouldn’t be surprised Derek wished to return because of guilt, but, Cora didn’t seem to have a weight on her conscious like Derek did. Even when she declared Scott and his pack were useless, and were only able to find dead bodies, she didn’t pity them. She didn’t view them as children, but the possibility to be adults. As only a year older than Stiles, she probably knew how sometimes it was a necessary to grow up too fast. After the eclipse, Scott had told Stiles that Cora hadn’t wanted Derek to come and help him with the Durach. Scott thought that she just wanted to leave and keep her brother safe. Stiles wondered what changed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

Stiles entered the cafeteria and headed to the table where Allison and Cora were already sitting. He clonked his lunch tray down at the table and sat down across from Cora. “So,” he started, interrupting them. “What type of movement are we talking about? What do you think we should look out for? What, exactly, is coming this way? Like, do I need to invest in a new weapon? I think the upgrade from wooden to aluminum was pretty good. I should be able to hit anyone without it breaking” He paused shortly as his face scrunched in displeasure. “Or bend. Do you think if I hit a werewolf with it, it would bend? That would really suck.” As he stopped talking, he dug into his food with gusto. Macaroni and Cheese was something not even Beacon Hills High School could mess up too badly.

Cora almost looked impressed (or maybe it was disgusted and Stiles was just being hopeful) as he stuffed fork load after fork load into his mouth; however, she then ignored him and she turned back to Allison. “As I was saying, before we were interrupted” Cora said pointedly.

Stiles almost choked on his food and angrily started chewing his macaroni as fast as he can. Normally, he would just speak, but he really doesn’t want to spit food on Cora. One, because he’s pretty sure she would break his arm for doing so, and two, well, he just doesn’t want to totally disgust her.

“I learned to throw knives a few years ago.” Cora said, continuing her conversation with Allison.

Allison looked hesitant. “Would you like to learn more?”

“Not really”

Allison’s shoulders drooped, and Stiles continued to furiously chew through his macaroni.

“Look.” Cora said. “I am my own weapon. I have the claws, strength, and determination. That’s what I focus on. I don’t need anything else. It would just slow me down.”

Stiles finally managed to swallow. “Okay, first of all.” Stiles said waving around his fork as he explained. “It was an important question! We need to talk about these things. You said you came back because of it so we should figure it out. You know, together. We are not doing what we did with your brother. The miscommunication or, really, non-communication that happened obviously did not help us. It was when we worked together, like getting you out of the hospital, that things tended to go well. Okay, not well, but better. Better is good and results in no one dying. We are going to talk about this, and you are not going to leave us in the dark. Second, why would you even bother to learn how to throw knives if weapons only slow you down?”

Cora reached over and put his hand that was holding his fork, which was still up in the air, down flat on the table.

“As I told Allison, it’s good to know some sort of projectile. Not everything can be hand-to-hand combat. Knives are less bulky than most other weapons to carry around and they can stay snug on your body when you fight.”

“That – that makes a lot of sense.” Stiles admitted.

“Yeah, it does,” Allison agreed not looking happy about it.

Isaac and Scott approached the table and sat down in their usual seats – as close to Allison as possible

“Are you alright?” Scott asked Allison, and Isaac looked over at her, concerned.

She plastered a smile on her face. “Everything’s fine. I was just hoping” she glanced over at Cora, “Well, it really doesn’t matter. I’ll figure something out.”

Cora looked up from her meal. “Hoping what? All you did was ask me my fighting style and then if I knew how to use weapons or wanted to learn a particular one. You can’t have a strong desire to teach me how to use one.” She said flatly.

Allison looked down where she was pushing food around on her plate. Stiles realized that she hadn’t actually eaten anything. When he looked at her more closely, she looked like she had lost some weight because her skin around her chees had sunken in. Maybe Stiles wasn’t the only one having problems with the darkness.

“I was thinking more along the lines of a trade” Allison responded.

“For what?”

“Teaching me more hand-to-hand combat.”

Cora took a bite of her apple and chewed slowly as she looked Allison over.

“But, I’m sure you don’t want to train a hunter. Especially without anything in return.” Allison added.

“You’re right. But, you’re not a hunter,” Cora continued.

Allison let out a humorless laugh. “My family burned yours alive and has a reputation of killing werewolves. I’ve gone through the Argent training. I’m a hunter.”

“The training isn’t what makes you a hunter. It’s your intentions. If you were a hunter, you wouldn’t be sitting with us. Or part of his” Cora gestured at Scott, “strange pack. Why me? Like you said, you’re an Argent. Why not ask your father?”

Allison shook her head, “It’s not his specialty. I’ve learned more how to fight with weapons and getting myself in and out of situations. I can probably take you out from fifty feet away, but up close? I’d be the one left bleeding on the ground.”

“Fine. But I’m not going to train just you. I’m going to train all of you. Maybe even the redhaired brat if she’s going to be caught up with us.”

Stiles’ mind automatically jumps to the image that popped into his mind earlier that morning of Cora and Derek fighting. Except now, he’s fighting Cora. She quickly flips him on to his back to pin him to the ground. He imagines her on top of him as she holds him tightly in place and both of them breathing heavily from exertion. And then, she would pull him up and teach it to him again. Challenging him until he gets it right. Uh, even Stiles was surprised that his mind went in that direction. He watched as Allison’s broke into a full smile.

“Really?” She asked.

Cora nodded.

“Uh, hold on here.” Stiles said jumping into the conversation. “All of us? Like, including me? And Scott? And Isaac? Don’t you think that’s a little unnecessary? We have cross-country after school plus there’s this thing, maybe you haven’t heard of it. It’s called homework. I really don’t want to fail out of school. Besides, you really think you can convince Lydia to participate in any sort of combat training? Psssh”

“You will if you want to survive. You and Lydia especially. You won’t last long if all you have is a bat.”

“So, I guess that’s a yes to updating my weapon” Stiles mumbled.

“No!” Scott exclaimed loudly. They all turn to look at him in surprise. “We are not giving Stiles a weapon. It’s a bad idea. Bad, dangerous idea.”

“Thanks, man” Stiles said.

Scott smiled as if it was a compliment and continued on. “But, I think you’re right. Learning how to fight would be good for all of us. Including you guys. ” Scott said gesturing at Allison and Stiles. “And maybe you can show us some tricks too, Allison. Like if Lydia ever gets duck taped to a chair again or if anyone of us gets real weak, those skills would be useful.”

“What about Coach and cross-country?” Isaac asked.

“I’ll deal with Coach. Tell him it’s a fitness regime boot camp thing. He doesn’t really care about cross-country. He just wants us to be ready for lacrosse, so it should be fine. He’s trusts me.” Scott said nodding to himself.

“Good. We can all meet at the loft after school. Derek can help.” Cora smirked, “Or learn”

“Yeah, fine. That’s great.” Stiles said, ”I’m not saying no to learn how to defend myself, because the possibilities of getting attacked around here, are, you know, astronomical. But, my main gig? The one I’ve been doing since you’ve got bit, Scott, is research. And research means collecting information. Information like movement of supernatural creatures!”

“Calm down. We can discuss that then at the loft too.”

“Oooor,” Stiles drawed out. “We can discuss it now?”

“Or, some of us would to actually enjoy some non-supernatural time at school” Isaac says. Allison and Scott nod in agreement.

Stiles huffed. “Fine.”

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

As planned, they all showed up at the loft after school. Stiles was surprised to see that even Lydia showed up. When he asked her who bribed to come, she told him that he should know better than to think she was that stupid. Now that she knew she was a banshee, she wanted to learn how to control it, and she wanted to save herself the next time she faced strangulation.

Cora took charge of the training session. Her original plan was to separate the wolves and humans. She wanted for Derek to lead the humans and she was going to lead the wolves. They immediately informed her that it wasn’t a good idea. They explained that training with Derek in the past hadn’t gone well, although they neglected placing the blame on the students or the teacher. Derek’s frown had gotten even deeper, and Stiles was afraid what would happen if Derek tried to train his werewolf body against his human one. Luckily, Cora decided to demonstrate with Derek and go through the basics. Then, she gave Allison an hour to teach them a skill. Stiles was delighted to find that his lock picking technique, which he had never been able to get a hang of, was close to perfection by the end of the session.

Afterwards, they were all given water bottles and some questionable looking rags, which Lydia refused to use, to clean up their sweat and gathered around the long table that was over by the wall of windows.

“So, supernatural creatures?” Stiles asked after he licked the water drops from his water bottle off his lips.

Cora blinked at him and dragged her eyes up to his before she started speaking. “I’m still waiting to hear from a lot of my contacts, so a lot of this is just stuff we noticed and collected from listening.” She dragged up some maps up from under the table and the pack helped her lay them out. Most of them were detailed maps of California. Cora pulled one of Northern California to then center of the table and pointed to a spot on the map where a river opened up to the Pacific Ocean. “This is a well known kelpie spot –“

“Kelpies are real?” Stiles interrupted. “That’s awesome!”

The Hales’ eyebrows went up.

“Well, you know, beside the fact that they lure people onto their backs and drown them. That part kinda sucks.” Stiles amended.

Scott glanced back between the Hales and Stiles. “What kind of animal drowns their victims?”

“Horses. Demonic water horses” Derek replied.

Scott’s jaw dropped open. “ _Demonic?”_

“Like spirit.” Cora explained sighing in exasperation. “Not actual red eyed demons that are going to drag you to hell. They’re water spirits that typically take the shape of a horse. They lure people onto their backs and drown them to eat their insides. And they are moving upstream.” She traced the river as it moved further inland and as it broke off into Dales River. Stiles knew Dales River it was the natural boundary lines of the South side of Beacon Hills. Cora paused her finger along the river only a couple towns away. “This is where they are now.”

“And how are you aware of that?” Lydia asked, pushing closer to the table so she was standing right next to Stiles. Cora crossed the room to the cabinets in the corner.

“Deaths. There’s been a pattern of drowning through the river.” Derek explained.

Cora returned to the table with an iPod that she placed on the table. It displayed a newspaper article from three and a half weeks ago. “Here” She clicked through multiple articles. They went in chronological order, and all the headlines were those of deaths in different towns along the river. The last one was a couple days ago at Stevenson, the same place Cora stopped on the map.

“They’ll reach Beacon Hills in four days, judging by their trajectory.” Lydia said frowning.

Cora looked up quickly in surprise. “How did you figure that out?”

Lydia sighed. “Look, sweetie just because I like to have some fun _doesn’t_ mean that I’m vapid.”

“She’s like super smart. Her IQ is 170. Probably could figure it out in her sleep,” Stiles added grinning. Cora scowled, although Stiles couldn’t imagine why. He didn’t think he had laid it on too thick. Working with Lydia to figure out the Durach had resulted in them becoming closer to actual friends, and Stiles had realized that they made a really good team. He had found himself content to be her friend. Anything more than that wasn’t unappealing, but he didn’t feel a desire for it like he once had. Even so, he was proud of Lydia’s intelligence and was still used to spouting poetic about her. It was a trait that was probably going to take awhile to break.

“So, we have four days to figure out how to fight un-killable water horses?” Isaac asked.

“Well, maybe we don’t have to fight them?” Scott said, hopefully. “Maybe we can just talk to them and convince them not kill anyone.”

“How do we know they won’t try to drown us when we try to talk to them?” Allison asks. Scott’s shoulders drop in disappointment. “Sorry,” she added quietly. “Just trying to think about this practically. Maybe we can have a white flag or make a declaration of peace with them before we get to close to the water.”

“So we’re going to declare peace with the psycho horses and _hope_ they’re not going to kill us?” Isaac interjected.

Derek scoffed. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Actually,” Cora said slowly. “Scott might be onto something.”

Scott beamed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

Scott didn’t like the plan.

“What happened to talking to them? I don’t want to hurt any of them.” Scott said crossly as he got out of Stiles’ jeep.

Stiles sighed deeply as they walked down the grassy hill and towards Dale River. “It’s not going to hurt them. It’s just some, you know, insurance in case they do try to drown us. And I don’t know about you, but I do not want to die by drowning. It reminds me too much of a freaking panic attack, which I don’t want to experience anytime soon either.” Stiles stopped walking and turned his head to look Scott directly in the eyes. “And I will, if you manage to get yourself drowned. Even you can’t heal from that.”

Scott gave Stiles an apologetic smile and squeezed his shoulder. “Yeah man, I know.”

Stiles nodded, “Good.” They continued down on their path to the river in silence. It didn’t last very long.

“I still don’t like it.”

Stiles shook his head and couldn’t help but grin. Stiles thought that Scott must realize that Cora’s plan was because of safety reasons. But, Scott had been rebelling from the Hales since he met them. Not only did he rebel against being Peter’s beta, but he also rebelled against any orders that Derek gave him. It was going to be a bit of a challenge for them all to trust each other completely.

“Well, tough, buddy. You might be the true alpha or what ever, but you got out voted on this one. This pack is a democracy and the rest of us feel safer going with Cora’s plan.” Stiles said as he stumbled over the uneven ground and threw his hands up in the air trying to gain some balance. Luckily, Stiles managed to catch himself before he fell on his ass.

Cora’s plan was to make a trade. Cora knew that this particular herd of kelpies (who knew a pack of kelpies were called a herd? Stiles would’ve thought they would be called a school or something) were frustrated with the level of pollution in the water. Apparently, anytime a kelpie swallowed a soda can or got plastic bags stuck in their manes, they would be infuriated with such a rage that they took initiative to lure humans beyond the scope of the water. The Hales remembered a pond that used to lay on their land. It was far enough into the forest and their old house that it didn’t attract any teenagers or loiters and it was virtually free of any litter and much cleaner the Dale River. Cora wanted to offer the pond to the kelpies as a safe haven as long as the killing stopped. The Hales, Stiles and Scott had gone to the police station to inform the Sheriff of the kelpie situation (the Sheriff was not amused by the explanation of malicious sea horses – his words). The station released a statement of Fish Tuberculosis being spread through the Dale River to keep people away, and the Sheriff had pulled some strings to guarantee that the pond would remain isolated and uninterrupted at the preserve. Scott approved of this part of the plan.

Stiles and Scott found the rest of the pack staring at the river.

“I still don’t see any,” Lydia said irritably.

“I think I do!” Allison said pointing towards the river. Her eyes were bright and her smile wide. She reminded Stiles of a child at the zoo trying to find its favorite animal hidden in the habitat. It was the first time he’d ever seen her excited about a supernatural creature.

“Do you think they’ll have seaweed as manes?” she asked.

Isaac looked at her suspiciously. “I don’t know, why? Are you planning to pet the drowning machines?”

“Maybe you should stay back from this one,” Scott said frowning at Allison.

“What? I though we’d established that I can take care of myself, Scott.” Allison said turning to face him. Her innocent and happy demeanor disappeared as her eyes narrowed and her jaw clenched. She tensely waited for Scott’s rebuttal, but it didn’t come. Scott stood in mirror image to her with his fists clenched at his sides. The rest of the pack stood by awkwardly as they had their stare down.

“Uh, so” Stiles started as he stumbled closer to the couple. They needed to work as a team and getting mad before hand wasn’t going to help anyone. Plus it was an awkward silence, so he just _had_ to interrupt. It was like law or something. Scott and Allison both turned hard-edged glares towards him. “Well that’s terrifying.” He mumbled. “If I had more self-perseveration the looks on your face would cause me to shut up.” Allison crossed her arms and her glare intensified. Stiles smiled widely. “But I’m not. You’re kinda scary, Allison. I mean with the crossbow and the knives. I mean your apartment still looks like an arsenal and you guys _retired_. So, yeah. I don’t doubt for a second that you can’t take care of yourself.”

“Stiles” Scott said as he tried to interrupt.

“But” Stiles rolled on “do you know the kelpies legend? I mean there are lots of different legends; most mythological creatures have tons of them. It’s oddly annoying and fascinating. I mean Scotland has –“

Cora cleared her throat and looked at him pointedly. If Stiles didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought the slight upturn of the corners of her mouth meant that his rambling amused her.

“Uh, yeah.” Stiles stammered as he continued looking at Cora. She didn’t look happy per se but she didn’t look as annoyed and tense as she usually did. It made her seem softer somehow, like there was a person underneath all that stone faced annoyance. He liked to think that maybe he had caused to look like that. That she was looking at him like that. He liked the way it made him feel and he found himself grinning at her. She rolled her eyes and actually gave a real smile back.

“Kelpies, Stiles?” Cora nicely prompted.

Stiles could feel himself turn red as he realized he had completely stopped talking and stared at Cora for the past minute, which, by the looks on everyone’s faces, hadn’t gone unnoticed. Derek was glaring at him while everyone else looked entertained. He decided to ignore their looks and carry on. “One of the legends is that kelpies would enchant you children and lure them onto their back for a ride. Some even say that as soon as you touch one you become stuck and they proceed to drown you and devour your intestines.” He paused and looked at Allison. “So, you looking like they’re rainbow pooping unicorns is a tad worrisome.”

“It really shouldn’t matter anyways. Scott and I are the only ones going over there.” Cora added simply.

“You managed to get it then?” Stiles asked.

“Of course” Cora responds, and Derek zips open the backpack she’s wearing and pulls out a bridle. Now, this? This was part of the plan that Scott didn’t like.

The bridle was an old relic that Cora was borrowing from an acquaintance (Stiles had poked and prodded to figure out from _whom_ she was borrowing it and getting her information, but Cora had simply stared him down until he shut up). Although there was no way to kill a kelpie, there was a way to tame and control them, with a cabsdair. A cabsdair deuraich was a bridle made under the sun of Scotland and was able to bind a kelpie due its Gaelic inscription written in a mixture of mountain ash and water lobelia seeds. This particular cabsdair looked ancient. It looked like it had once been black leather, but now it was all faded and cracked. When the sun hit it at the right angle, one could see the shimmering green detailing and inscription. There were only a few left in the world.

There were a few issues. One was that they were supposedly facing a herd of kelpies, instead of just one. Two was that Scott did not approve of the cabsdair part of the plan. He didn’t like trying to take control of anyone, but they needed someway to guarantee that the kelpies would listen to them. The cabsdair was supposed be their leverage and a way to get the kelpies’ attention. As soon as the kelpies agreed to the terms and conditions, the kelpie would be released. The last issue was actually getting the cabsdair on a kelpie. Derek said it was going to be like trying to break in a horse. So really, they might not even be able to get the cabsdair on a kelpie, and then, they’d have an angry herd of kelpies after them. Stiles had tried to convince everyone to wear a life jacket as a precaution, but they countered that it would just be bulky and slow down their movements.

Scott and Cora were the ones elected to go down to the river to try to tame in a kelpie and deal with negotiations. Cora, because she refused to let anyone else touch the cabsdair, and Scott, because he was the alpha and should be the one setting the terms. The rest of them were there for backup. Stiles prayed that they wouldn’t need it.

“Are you sure that’s necessary?” Scott asked eyeing the cabsdair wearily.

“Yes!” the rest of the pack responded.

“Well, are you ready to get this over with?” Scott asked Cora.

She nodded and slipped off her backpack and handed it to Derek.

“Be careful” Derek told her as he handed her the cabsdair. Cora nodded and walked over to Scott. “Both of you” he added.

“We can do this” Scott said. “Just keep an eye out for us.”

The rest of the pack lined up parallel to the river as Cora and Scott approached the water.

“Cora knows what she’s doing, right?” Stiles asked softly.

Stiles sensed more than saw Derek nod besides him. “She said she spent some time at a ranch. She actually has broken in some horses. It should give her an idea what to expect.”

“Good” Stiles breathed out. Except, instead of feeling reassured, the feeling of dread only grew as Cora and Scott got closer and closer to the water. His body felt heavy with it, like his insides were being filled with lead. Stiles pulled his sleeve to his mouth and start to chew as he tried to focus on that instead of the rising tension inside him. He had a bad feeling it was going to break any second. Cora and Scott reached the edge of the water, and it felt as though the air became too thick around him. It was getting hard to breathe. As soon as they touched the water, Stiles heard Allison gasp and then felt the darkness around his heart tighten.

Stiles was struck with every possible, conceivable way this could go wrong, but he didn’t just imagine it. No, he could literally see and feel them happening. He could see Scott being thrashed along the river. He could see himself and Allison pull his dead body from the water. He could feel how cold Scott’s body was. How empty. Allison was in hysterics next to him, and he held her hard for comfort only to taste the salt from her tears. He could see Cora’s eye’s glazed over and her mouth open with water pouring out as she floated towards the shore. There was Derek crying over her body. The only family he had left was gone. Stiles could feel the cold water splashing around his legs and he pulled them both out of the river and away from the kelpies. He could see the herd of kelpies rise up in anger and manage to overflow the river. Stiles watched as a kelpie overcame each one of his friends, one by one. He could feel the warmth of his his tears dripping down his cheeks as he screamed out for them. He could see the face of the kelpie meant to kill him with its black, soulless eyes. He could feel its anger and its rage before it attacked. Stiles felt the over pressure water all around him. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t afford too. If he did, he would drown. The water would fill his lungs and –

“Stiles!”

Stiles snapped back to reality. Lydia was shaking him. Her eyes were wide with worry. “You aren’t breathing!”

Stiles didn’t even notice that he stopped breathing. He closed his eyes and slowly breathed in. It wasn’t real. It hadn’t happened. He and Lydia were still alive. He opened his eyes to see the situation. Isaac and Allison were to his right. They were in a similar position. Isaac was yelling at Allison and trying to drag her back to the present. Stiles looked over to the river. Scott must have had the same reaction as him and Allison. He was kneeling in the shallow parts of the water and Derek was with him. Cora was –

“Lydia, where’s Cora?” Stiles gasped at her. He couldn’t see her in the water or anywhere else.

Lydia flipped around to face the river. “She - - she was in the water and I, I don’t know!” she panicked. Stiles got up and ran splashing into the water. Lydia wasn’t that far behind him “The three of you just – I don’t know what happened.”

Stiles swallowed fearfully. The water began to take shape in front of him. He could see the same black, soulless eyes that he had seen in his head floating on the top of the river.

“Where is she? What did you do with her?” Stiles yelled. The eyes flickered over to a spot a little further down the river. He could barely see Cora’s chestnut hair as it floated up to the surface and then it was over taken by the water. The cabsdair was floating not far from her.

“Lydia, grab the cabsdair!” he cried as he kicked off his shoes.

“What? Stiles? Stiles!” He heard Lydia yell, but he was already gone.

Stiles swam fast trying to reach Cora. As he got closer, he could hear Cora screaming. It was a good sound to hear, he told himself. It meant she was still breathing. He pushed himself to go even faster. His legs and lungs were burning, but she was so close. He saw her body bob again only feet in front of him and took one last deep breath before diving under the surface. The water was cloudy in his eyes as he tried to spy her body. He saw a dark shape a few feet further down and reached out hoping to grab something. He felt something warm and human under his touch so he tightened his grip and pulled. Something, a kelpie, pulled back. He swam deeper and grabbed a hold of her shirt. He pulled her close to his body as he started swimming back to the surface. A kelpie must have been interfering, because at points he found the current to be particularly rough and almost thought up was down a few times, but both of them managed to reach the surface before Stiles’ breath gave out. Gasping, Stiles pulled Cora to the shore. As he pulled her out the water, Stiles realized her body was limp beside his.

“No, no, no, no” Stiles whispered frantically and leaned down towards her chest. She wasn’t breathing. “Fuck! You were supposed to be breathing the next time I did this!” He exclaimed as he prepared her for CPR. He leaned down and breathed air into her body. “You have to fucking breathe. C’mon Cora!” he said angrily as he did compressions on her chest. As he leaned down to do the second cycle of breaths, Cora jerked up and rammed her head into Stiles.

“Shit!” he yelled as he fell backwards. He pulled himself up to his knees and crawled back over towards Cora.

“You okay?” he asked. Cora nodded and coughed up the rest of the water.

“Good.” He managed a small smile. “For once, I’d like to have you breathing when we’re mouth to mouth”

“What?” she rasped.

“Uh, I mean. You know. I shouldn’t have to do CPR on you twice or anything. I wasn’t talking about kissing. I swear!”

She just stared him before finally asking. “Twice?”

Stiles shrugged and helped her to her feet. “Yeah, you know. During the Great Break Cora Hale Out of the Hospital and Away from the Alphas and the Durach. You may have kinda stopped breathing for a while.”

“Oh.” She rubbed her hands on her now very wet jeans. “Thanks” she said quietly.

“Yeah, no problem.”

Stiles and Cora made their way back to the group and were surprised by what they saw. Lydia and Scott were standing at the edge of the river with the rest of the pack behind them. Lydia was holding the cabsdair in her hands and Scott was speaking softly. There were multiple sets of black eyes staring at them from the very top surface of the river. The shocking part was that in front of Scott and Lydia was a kelpie. Stiles got the impression that it was the leader of its herd. The kelpie’s own alpha. Its water body had risen so that it’s knees and body was above the water and it was massive. The kelpie looked to be twice as large as a regular horse. Before Stiles and Cora reached the area, the kelpie bowed down to Scott. Scott returned the bow, and then the kelpie turned around sunk into the water. Slowly, each pair of eyes swam further and further away until out of sight.

“What the fuck just happened?” Stiles asked.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Stiles stood in front of the door to loft and picked at the threads coming off of his shirtsleeve. He felt ridiculously nervous, and he had no idea _why_. It wouldn’t be the first time that he stopped by the loft uninvited. Hell, the last time he showed up like this he had gotten a bedtime story from Peter about Paige. It’s not like they were going to kick him out or anything. He just wanted to make sure Cora was okay after almost drowning to death. Of course, it was the thought of seeing Cora that kicked up his anxiety, which was stupid. _He_ was being stupid. The whole thing was stupid. He had no reason to be nervous. Stiles took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

The door slid open and Stiles found himself face to face with Derek.

“You actually knocked,” Derek said, amused.

“I, uh, yeah? What?”

Derek shrugged and stepped aside to let Stiles in. “No one ever knocks. You all just barge in. Like you’re invited.” He paused and then frowned at Stiles. “Or live here.”

Stiles followed Derek into the loft and forced out some laughter and it came out higher pitched than he would’ve liked. “Yeah, well. I don’t. Live here that is. And I wasn’t invited. Sooo, I knocked.”

“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to come in at all. You were standing out there for ages.” Peter said from right behind Stiles.

“Jesus, fuck!” Stiles breathed out, whirling around quickly. “Are you trying to scare me to death?”

“I think you’re doing a good job of that yourself” Peter remarked as he zoomed in on Stiles’ chest.

Stiles felt his cheeks heat up from embarrassment.

“Why are you here, Stiles” Derek asked.

“I wanted to see Cora was okay. I mean, after yesterday. She nearly died.”

“I’m fine” Cora said, appearing at the top of the spiral staircase.

“Well, in that case,” Peter said as he smiled and clapped his hands together. “How about you join us for dinner.”

Stiles shivered from the look on Peter’s face. He looked entirely too gleeful. “No, I’m good. I- I should go. Glad you’re doing alright” Stiles said as he nodded to Cora, and then he headed towards the sliding door.

“Wait.” Cora commanded Stiles who stopped trying to slide the door open. She then addressed Peter. “What are we having for dinner?”

“Chinese”

Cora grimaced and climbed down the rest of the spiral staircase. She looked at Stiles and said, “I’m coming with you. I’m sick of Chinese. We’ve had it three times this week. We can get dinner at that new Mediterranean place.”

“Uh, yeah! Okay, sounds good” Stiles said and he followed her out the door.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

Stiles nerves had climbed when the two of them had gotten into his jeep and he was sure his heart rate had increased since they had left the loft. If Peter could tell then, Cora must have been aware of it. Thankfully, she didn’t mention it, and Stiles didn’t have to blunder through an explanation (mostly because he didn’t have one). However, by the time they sat down at the restaurant Stiles no longer felt like he was going to jump out of his skin. Instead, a low buzz that made him feel just a tad more alive was left in its wake. Probably because most of his attention had been redirected to the unknown eatery.

Mezze was a small cafe like place off of Combewell, and Cora insisted on sitting outside. The café had its own patio with a garden of a wide variety of flowers surrounded them. They were the only ones eating outside, and they sat a small two person table. Stiles wasn’t even aware that Mezze existed or that it was new to the town, until Cora mentioned it. Stiles made a face as he examined the menu. He didn’t even recognize half of the names on it. In the end, Cora ordered a dish for him. It was something with chicken, and when it was delivered to their table, Stiles was relieved to find that it was recognizable.

Cora and Stiles ate their meals in peace and were mostly quiet. Stiles was surprised to find that it wasn’t awkward. Okay, maybe it was for the first five minutes. He wanted to say something, but everything that he thought of to say sounded like garbage, so he just kept piling more food into his mouth. Eventually, the awkwardness had faded away as Stiles accepted the silence. In doing so, he noticed that Cora seemed to be relish in the quiet and tranquility. As he watched her eat, he could tell that she was really enjoying her dish. Her lips smiled around every fork full that her mouth in took and her eyes fluttered close with pleasure every once in awhile.

Eventually, after a waiter came and refilled their water glasses, Cora put her fork down and asked “Are you okay?”

Stiles jerked his head up to look at her. “Yeah. Why?”

Cora glanced down at her plate and moved the food around with her fork. “Your heartbeat’s been weird ever since you arrived at the loft.” Stiles looked back at her, wide eyed as his heartbeat spiked. He didn’t think they were going to talk about that. He was good on the ignoring it route. Cora smirked. “Is it about yesterday? Are you alright after what happened?”

“Am _I_ alright? You drowned yesterday! You were literally not breathing when I pulled you out of the water!”

She looked back up at him. “Werewolf, remember? But, you, Scott, and Allison all.” She stopped and scowled. Stiles wondered if scowl face was passed down from their mother or father. She and Derek had the same expression. He would put money on their mother, the Alpha. “I don’t even know what happened yesterday. As soon as we touched the water, Scott basically collapsed. And from what I could tell, so did you and Allison.”

Stiles avoided eye contact with her as he studied her partially empty plate. “Yeah, it was nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

Cora’s frown deepened and kicked his leg under the table.

“Ow!”

“Are you serious right now? First off, werewolf. Don’t lie to me. Second, the three of you completely lost it. What. Is. Going. On?”

Stiles decided it was an excellent time to take a long drink from his glass of water. He didn’t want to talk about it. At least, not really, which was why he, Scott and Allison hadn’t discussed it. Although, in the back of his head he knew it would probably help, but it was hard to get started on those painful conversations. But, here was Cora, actually bringing it up and offering. Stiles had thought about doing guidance counseling sessions with Morrell again, but since he found out about her helping the Alpha pack, he couldn’t bring himself to trust her. Cora, on the other hand, he felt like he could trust. Maybe it was stupid, because when she first arrived in Beacon Hills, she made it clear how useless she thought they were, and that she didn’t care about anyone beside her family. Now. . .Stiles looked Cora in the eye and swallowed the rest of his water. She had willingly come back to Beacon Hills, because she knew there was trouble. She had taken charge of pack training sessions. She had taken control of the kelpie situation and laid out a fairly feasible plan (well, as feasible as any of their plans go). She was pack.

“I think” Stiles shakily let out a breath. “I think it was the darkness.”

“The what?”

“The darkness from our sacrifice to the nameton”

“Your sacrifice?” Cora looked exceedingly confused. If Stiles wasn’t trying to talk about this, he might have actually smiled. She looked cute like that and more innocent and more her age than someone who had to grow up too fast.

“Yeah, I guess you weren’t really around. Deaton had us sacrifice ourselves in order to find our parents when Jennifer kidnapped them. It’s what’s making Beacon Hills a hotbed for supernatural creatures. Deaton said that there would be a darkness around our hearts.”

“And is there?”

Stiles nodded. “Everyday. Sometimes it’s not bad. Mostly when I’m busy and my attention’s occupied and stuff. Like now. Well, not _now_ since we’ve started talking about it, but being here eating dinner with you.”

Cora smiled lightly. “We weren’t even talking.”

“Yeah, I know. It was just. . .good. Nice.” He tried to explain lamely. He then realized that his cheeks were getting warm, and he was probably blushing. He had been too occupied by the fact that he was with her to think about anything else. Stiles cleared his throat. “It’s one of those things where once you think about it, you’re increasingly aware of it. And you can’t stop thinking of it.”

“What does it feel like?”

Stiles searched for the words to explain the tightness in his chest when the darkness took over. “I might call it an ache, but it’s worse than that. It’s more like an emptiness. Like, my heart and soul have been taken out, so I’m nothing. I can’t even feel anything. It doesn’t make me angry or depressed, although I wish it would. I feel like there’s a void and that it’s slowly taking over until nothings left. I’m not scared, but I feel like I’m at the edge of a panic attack without the panic. I’m just tense and waiting for anything to go wrong.”

Cora’s warm hands covered his, and he looked down to see his are shaking. He attempted a weak smile and a joke, but nothing came. He closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. When he opened them again, he saw that Cora’s are filled with concern.

“I’m okay,” he said weakly. Cora only gently squeezes his hands.

“Yesterday, was different” Stiles continued on after a moment. “As soon as you and Scott took off towards the river. . .” Stiles trailed off shaking his head. “I just knew something bad was going to happen, and once you two touched the water I could see every single way it could go wrong. Except, it was worse than that. I couldn’t just see it. I could feel it, you know? I lived it. I can still feel Scott’s cold body or see your glossy eyes when I close my eyes. I think - I got to a part where I couldn’t even tell that it wasn’t reality anymore. Everyone was dying, and I was drowning. I don’t know how I got out of it. I just remember Lydia shaking me.”

“Lydia screamed. After the three of you went out of it. I think it’s what brought all of you back to the present.”

Stiles nodded. It made sense. If she hadn’t managed to shake them out of it, one of them could have easily ended up dead. “My guess is that Scott and Allison went through similar things. We haven’t really talked about it.

Cora pursed her lips. “Maybe you should.”

Stiles nodded his head. They probably should, how was the biggest question.  
  
“Are you better? Now? No lasting side effects?” Cora asked.

“No, nothing besides the usual.” Cora raised an eyebrow, and Stiles groaned in response. “The usual being the nightmares.”

“You didn’t mention any nightmares.”

Stiles ran his hands through his hair and tugged on it in frustration. He didn’t really mean to mention them. He didn’t even think they were part of the darkness, but just a normal reaction to everything he’s seen in the past year.

“They don’t happen all the time, but sometimes it’s just normal things. Like my dad getting shot or Jennifer managing to kill everyone. My mom dying, which is an old reoccurring one since I learned she was terminal. Last nights were just. . .” Stiles trailed off trying not to remember the images that crept into his head while he was sleeping. Cora’s dead body had been the starring feature, and the main reason why he went to check in one her today. He not only wanted to make sure she was doing all right, but he also needed to reassure himself that she was still breathing.

“That bad, uh?” Cora remarked when he never completes the thought. The next part sounds forced “I had some pretty bad nightmares after the fire. Still do.”

Stiles looked at her in surprise. Partly because Cora doesn’t seem like a person bothered by nightmares, and because he shocked that she’s willingly telling him something so personal, but he appreciates it and recognizes the gesture.

“Were you –“ He started to ask and then stopped. He wants to ask and know more. He wants to know how she escaped from the fire and how she’s holding up, but he doesn’t want to push her. He knows how hard it is to talk about some subjects.

Cora seems to be searching for something as she looks at him. She must have found it, because she squeezes his hands and says quietly, “They’re mostly of fire and the sound of their screams until it gets too much. Then, nothing. Its just overwhelming blackness.” Her grip on his hands tightened even more, and Cora looked straight at him, but he doesn’t think she’s really seeing him. “Mom and I had gotten into a fight. I don’t even remember what it was about, just that I was so angry. Mom had sent me outside to have my temper tantrum, as she called it. So, I went on a bit of a run. I was so mad that I wasn’t even paying attention to my surroundings. Maybe if I had-“

It was the first time that Cora faltered in the telling of her story, and her grip tightened almost to werewolf strength around Stiles’ hands. Stiles is impressed that she was able to say as much as she did with out struggling earlier. He carefully squeezes her hands back.

“You were ten years old. Even if you had noticed that something was wrong, you would have ended up dead with the rest of them.” It struck Stiles that he was looking at ten year old Cora. He’s never seen her look so vulnerable. Her normal stiff posture was slumped forward and her eyes were wet with tears. He felt his heart stutter when he realizes that she trusts him enough for him to see her like this, and as much as he cherishes that fact, he never wants to see her this way again. The most striking part of her vulnerability is how sad and lost she looks, and he felt a desperate urge inside of him to wipe the tears of her cheeks and kiss her until she smiles. In all honestly, he just wants to see her happy.

“I know it’s not my fault, but every time I think about that night, it’s just hard not to wish so many things.” Tears fell freely from Cora’s eyes now, and Stiles held on tighter to her hands hoping to ground her. “By the time I figured out something was wrong, I could already hear their screams. The closer I got to the house the more _wrong_ everything became. There were all these smells and people that didn’t belong. And when – when I felt my alpha, my _mom_ , die I ran.” Cora’s features rearranged themselves in disgust. She spat the last part out. “I was so scared that I ran.”

“What else were you supposed to do?”

“Something! I ran away from my family. I gave into my instincts and truly acted like an animal. They were my family and in pain. How could I have run from them?”

“That wasn’t just the wolf, Cora. Sometimes it’s easier to run than face the horror of reality. You knew there was nothing you could do. They would have wanted you to be safe.”

“I guess” Cora said as she sniffled. Stiles loosened his right hand from her hold, and her hands her a bunch of napkins for her tears.

“I used to run too, sometimes.” Cora listens as she starts drying her face. “I love my mom, but it was hard. Especially, at the end. It wasn’t that she wasn’t my mom anymore, but she was barely a person. It hurts to remember now, and it hurt to see then. As a kid, it would scare me. I didn’t always know how to face her. So, when we’d go to the hospital sometimes I would hide under Mrs. McCall’s desk.”

Cora finished wiping away the rest of her tears, and her eyes are barely puffy. “Do you regret hiding?”

Stiles shifts uncomfortably. “Sometimes. I wish I’d been there for her, you know? But, I’m glad I don’t have any more memories than I do of her that way. It’s not how I prefer to remember her by.

Cora nodded thoughtfully. She bunched up her used napkins and put them at the end of the table. “Sorry about that. I wanted to talk about you and if you were okay. Not about me.”

“I’m glad you did. I want to know more about you, Cora” Stiles said directly into her eyes and feeling very self-conscious. He nervously licked his lips and continued. “And it’s nice to know that you understand. About the nightmares and stuff. Not nice for you, but good to know.”

“Maybe, I’ll tell you more later.”

Stiles broke into his first real smile since the whole conversation started. “I’d really like that.”

Cora smiled back in response. “I still have a question about yesterday.”

“Shoot” Stiles said as he digs back into his meal. His appetite had magically returned.

“How did Lydia end up with the cabsdair?”

“When I noticed you were off with a kelpie, I went after you and Lydia went after the cabsdair. I don’t think either Scott or Lydia actually knows how they ended up securing the deal. Scott said once Lydia had the cabsdair, the main kelpie guy or whatever rose up and addressed her as banshee. I guess they knew what she was, which is less surprising now that I know that she screamed yesterday. I guess she told the kelpie alpha that she knew that no one was going to die that morning and any fighting that was happening stopped. And then Scott offered up his deal. I think we need to figure out more about the whole banshee thing”

“I’ll ask around. So, you didn’t see what happened?”

Stiles shook his head. “No. Between the darkness and making sure you hadn’t drowned, I was a little busy.”

“Thanks again for that. And for the hospital.”

Stiles’ cheeks redden slightly from her recognition. “Anytime” he tried to say casually.

Cora smirked, and, if Stiles didn’t know any better he’d swear she started to blush a little too. “That’s not what you said yesterday.”

Stiles mind dug for what he had said. He remembered saying something about wanting to be do mouth to mouth when she was breathing. He flushed as the implication, and flushed even more when he thinks about how much he would really like to kiss Cora. He also became very much aware that he was still holding one of her hands and that his heartbeat has kicked up. “Yeah, well” he stammered trying to think his way out of that one, but he came up blank. So, he does what does best. Talks. “So I was thinking that for the training sessions we should stop by the store and pick up some gym supplies.” Stiles rattled off a bunch other ideas he had for training, and Cora goes with the conversation switch. When he’s back at home later that night, he thinks it might have been the best dinner he’s had all year.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

After the kelpie incident, the pack developed a pattern. They would either meet at the loft or the preserve for training everyday after school. During lunch hours or on the weekends, Stiles, Cora, and Allison would work together to create the training plans for the week. Or rather, Cora and Allison told Stiles what they wanted to do, and Stiles did the planning and logistically figured out training partners. It made complete logistical sense that he made himself be Cora’s partner fifty percent of the time. Totally. However, Stiles was glad that they switched partners depending on the lesson, because working with Cora was a blessing and a curse. He had to fight a hard on when he practiced with her, and she always ended up kicking his ass. If he hadn’t been aware that he was attracted to strong women, he was now. He’d never been as turned on as when she’d pin him against the floor and her breath would hit the back of his ear. They fueled many of his late night jerking sessions

The pack would break at dinner, normally around six o’clock. Generally, Stiles and Cora would eat dinner together. Cora would try to get a hold of her contacts (mostly, Stiles learned over time, other supernatural creatures that had taken her in after the fire) while Stiles composed a list of everything they knew. They had even gotten a hold of a banshee who they put in contact with Lydia. It was difficult, Lydia explained, but not all banshees worked the same way, but she thought she was getting better at listening to her senses and understanding how her body now functioned.

Sometimes, he’d even stay after dinner and they would work on homework together. Well, not together since they didn’t have any classes together, but in the same room. Cora would sit on the couch with her books at a neat pile at her feet. Stiles would sprawl over the other half of the couch with different textbooks open and working on different homework assignments at the same time. By the end of the night, Stiles was generally on the floor, sitting up against the couch and Cora would use his head as a desk, which prevented him from squirming and moving as he usually did. Stiles would blurt out some random parts of his homework and start rambling how it reminded him of something else. Cora would shut him up and remind him of the actual topic, and keep him on track. The best part was that he didn’t even think his outbursts annoyed her, and she just accepted them. In return, Cora would ask questions about certain things she had missed from not being in high school, and Stiles would fill her in. Stiles was the most productive of those nights, and they always resulted in a nice dreamless sleep.

It has been over a month since the kelpies, and the pack has met many more supernatural creatures since then. Most of them were just like the pack. They were just trying to lead normal lives and happened to howl at the moon or breathe under water. The barista at Starbucks was a skin walker, their new history teacher was a kitsune. The pack met all of them, welcomed them to Beacon Hills and warned them that they did not tolerate any violence on others. Ninety percent of the creatures whole-heartily agreed and told the pack that they had moved to Beacon Hills because they felt safe there. It had taken all of Stiles’ self-restraint not to laugh the first time he’d heard that. How could living at the home of a sacrificial tree that input darkness into their lives, make them feel safe? Stiles had bit his lip trying not to laugh, and Cora had turned toward him to snort.

Not everyone they met liked the no-killing rule. They had also met with sisters that were sirens and a few omegas that had wandered into Beacon Hills. None of them approved of the no killing rule. Luckily, they all had left without too much of a hassle. Lydia managed to beat the sirens at a scream off, and when faced with a scuffle between Derek and Scott, the omegas left town pretty quickly. All things considered, things were going well. Well enough that Friday night after pack training was bro night with Scott. It would be there fourth one in a row with no interruptions. It was an actual miracle.

“So,” Scott said as he plopped down in the grey armchair with a bag of Doritos. “What’s going on between you and Cora?”

Stiles’ brow wrinkled in confusion from where he was messing with the cables and setting up to play StarCraft II. “What do you mean?” he asked.

Scott frowned. “You weren’t lying.”

“Really? You were listening to my heart? Do you really think I was going to lie to you?”

Scott cocked his head to the side.

“Okay, fine” Stiles conceded. “BUT! Do you think I’d lie to you about Cora? What’s there to lie about? Cora is -”

Stiles paused as he thought about it. Cora was great. They had hung out during lunch and all seemed to be fine. She even laughed at one of his jokes (which he did not preen at no matter what Lydia said) and told Allison about the time she fought an actual cougar. They had been training partners earlier today and everything, which went well. Besides the fact that Stiles was still a little flushed from their last pin. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or not but she had seemed to linger up against his back a little longer than necessary. Her boobs had been tight against his back and her hand had skittered down his stomach, scratching lightly with her claws. He wondered what they would feel like if she continue scratching her hand a little lowers. Stiles licked his lips. “Cora is good.”

Scott looked up at him with his eyebrows raised. “I didn’t ask you how Cora was”

“You didn’t?”

“No. I asked what was going on between the two of you”

Stiles thought about how there had been literally no space between the two of them when she had pounced on his back. “Nothing.”

Scott furrowed his eyebrows. “I don’t’ get it. You’re not lying, but you just keep getting redder and redder”

Stiles groaned. He was sure he was at fire engine red now. He concentrated on the gaming system and finished setting it up.

“I don’t know what you want me to say. Nothing out of the ordinary is going on. We’ve been just spending a lot of time together, but mostly it’s been about the supernatural stuff. I’m good. Cora’s good.” He said as went and sat in the chair next to Scott’s.

“Better than Lydia?”

“What? No. Cora’s way better than Lydia” Stiles said without thinking and took the Doritos out of Scott’s hand and started piling them into his mouth. Scott just stared at him. It took him about five large handfuls to figure out what he just said. He froze mid-chomp and a couple of Dorito pieces fell out of his mouth.

“Uhhh” he managed to garble out through his mostly full mouth.

“Dude! Since when?” Scott said with all smiles.

“Uhh” Stiles managed before he finished chewing and swallowing his current mouthful. He wasn’t really sure the last time he’d really thought about Lydia, especially in that way. “Maybe since, like, the kelpies?” he finally said as he started crinkling the Dorito bag in his hands.

“That was ages ago! You two have definitely been dating. You’re over there all the time.

“Uh, yeah no, Scott. ” Stiles said as he wiped his orange covered fingers on his jeans. “We’re just friends. We mostly work anyways. I mean she uses my head as a desk. It’s not like she sits in my lap or anything.”

Scott rolls his eyes. “You two hang out all the time, and we can all tell that she likes you too. It’s obvious at lunch and training sessions.”

“I doubt it, Scott.” Stiles says throwing the bag of chips on the ground wishing this conversation to be over. Yeah, he liked Cora. He admired her and really enjoyed their dinners and homework nights together. But, they were just friends. Cora really hadn’t done anything to show that she was interested in anything else. There was no obvious flirting or obvious signs of affection through contact. They were friends.

“You know she _always_ sits either directly across from you or next to you at lunch right? Or that besides her glory stories with Allison, you’re still the only person she’ll actually tell anything. Not to mention when you two pair up during trainings.”

Stiles frowned “What happens at training?”

“She pushes you more than anyone else. Plus, she either goes all out when she fights with you or draws the fight out as long as she can. She’s literally showing you her dominant side. At the end of the last fight, I thought we were going to have to hose you two down or something.”

Stiles swallowed remembering how he thought she had stayed there a tad longer than normal. “I don’t know man.”

“Look, you know better than anyone that Cora’s not like a lot of girls. She’s not going show her interest like everyone else does. I think part of her might die a little if she actually had to actually flirt. You know? So, trust me on this. It wouldn’t hurt to ask her out”

For once Stiles remained silent and continued playing with the Dorito’s bag. Scott had a point. Although, he would’ve thought Derek wouldn’t flirt if his life depended on it, and he’d seen Derek turn his flirty smile on at a click of button when distracting the female cop that one time.

Scott sighted. “I mean what’s the worst that could happen? It’s Cora. She’d probably glare at you for a moment, say no and then forget about it. It probably wouldn’t even affect your friendship.”

Stiles hated this. Scott made another excellent point. Scott was never allowed to be right, especially so many times in a row. “Maybe.” Stiles conceded.

“Look, if you were going to ask her out where would you take her? You know, hypothetically”

“Hypothetically” Stiles asked with his eyebrows raised.

Scott nodded. “Hypothetically”

Stiles actually took the time to think about it. He’d want to take her somewhere fun and exciting. Maybe they could try surfing or go rock climbing. She’d be way better at it than he would be, and Stiles thinks she’d like that. He can also see himself managing to harm himself in someway do to the wrong footing or somehow else as equally stupid. Getting hurt wasn’t exactly high on his priority list, and he wouldn’t want to look any stupider than Cora has already seen him. There were the go-carts a couple towns over, which could be fun. They even have strip with a bunch of games and stuff, kind of like a pier. That reminded him that the carnival is in town the following week. It only came once a year, and it definitely has some rides that made Stiles, scream. It would be thrilling without the actual danger. Plus, it could be a little romantic too, like going up on the Ferris wheel and sharing cotton candy.

“The carnival” Stiles answered Scott decisively. “I think she’d enjoy the fireball ride and would have a lot of fun beating all the games, and it’s only here once a year, so it’s special.”

Scott nods approvingly. “Nice. Now you just have to ask her before it leaves town!”

Stiles groans, but now that he’s thought about it he really does want to go with Cora. Maybe he will ask her. Maybe just as friends.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

Their non-interrupted game streak ended that night. Stiles’ dad called only a couple hours later while Stiles and Scott were immersed in the video game about a murder he expected was supernatural in nature. There was a witness who swore he saw someone _eating_ the body. The body, a 30-year-old female, had what looked to have animal scratches all over her body. Scott and Stiles met with the rest of the pack at the loft after they stopped by the station.

“Are you sure zombies aren’t a thing?” Stiles asked again as he flung the evidence photos on the table. His dad wasn’t going to miss them. Much.

His question apparently didn’t warrant an answer. The Hales all rolled their eyes or huffed as they leaned closer to the photographs. He couldn’t help but notice that Cora is directly on his right. He could feel the warm presence of her arm as she leaned on the table.

“Okay, fine. I mean I know zombies wouldn’t leave claw marks like that anyways. So what else eats humans? Vampires drink blood but those don’t look like teeth marks. Aswang normally go after children or unborn babies. Jikininki but I think they only eat corpses” Stiles goes on rattling off as many as he can think of, but none of them normally take a human shape and have claws.

As he talked, Cora pulled out Stiles’ binder where he’s kept a list and chart of facts and activities of all the supernatural creatures they have record of from Cora’s contacts.

“A wendigo” She interrupted him as she pauses on a page.

“A what?” Lydia asked, her nose already squishing in disgust.

“A wendigo. They’re cannibals in conjuncture with a dark spirit. I think they can transform somewhat, which means they might have claws. You have listed here that a possible wendigo was seen about a couple hours from here about a week ago. Murder suspect.” Cora said reading Stiles’ passage.

“Why eat people? Can’t they just eat a raw deer or something?” Isaac asked, his face mirroring Lydia’s.

“Once they start eating human flesh, it’s all they can eat.” Stiles explained.

“But why start?” Isaac prodded.

Stiles waved his arms. “You’re asking me? I’m not the one that agreed to be bitten by a werewolf to turn into supernatural creature, wolf boy”

“What does murder suspect mean?” Allison asked looking over Cora’s shoulder at the binder.

“It means they think it killed someone at that sighting.” Stiles said.

“Maybe your dad can find out more about it” Cora suggested.

Stiles nodded.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

It turned out that there are a whole string of deaths similar to theirs trailing through the West coast. They concentrate around one town with no murders actually occurring in said town, and then a week later, the murders are concentrated around a different town.

“The wendigo has been moving northwards.” Stiles said to his dad, Scott, and Cora who were all crowded around his dad’s desk.

“Right up to Beacon Hills” Cora added

Stiles chewed his pen as he looks for anything else that’s helpful. The problem is that they don’t have much else to go on. They have no idea what it’s human side looks like, and the pack doesn’t know what a wendigo smells like. There were too many other supernatural creatures living in Beacon Hills for them to find a vague supernatural scent.

“Well, it’s a start” the Sheriff said rubbing his face in the palm of his hand. Why don’t you kids go home and get some sleep. Keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you find anything.”

“Of course, Sheriff” Scott said, and the Sheriff nodded appreciatively.

“You’ll tell us if anything changes, right Dad?” Stiles asked.

“Sure, kid” his dad said and clapped him on the shoulder and squeezed. “Now the three of you get home and stay out of trouble.”

“Do you think we’re missing anything?” Scott asked as they walked through the station.

“We’ve got to be,” Stiles mumbled.

“Maybe, we’ll have some new ideas in the morning”

“Sure,” Cora snorted

Stiles smiled a little and then took in Scott’s disappointed face. “C’mon buddy.” He said as he throws his arm around Scott’s shoulders. “We’re not giving up so early. I just wish we had more to go on.”

They passed by Deputy Parrish at the front desk as they head to the front door.

“Drive carefully.” he called after them. Stiles turned around to tell him goodnight when he noticed the fluorescent green flyer on his desk. He walked over to grab it.

“I guess you can look at that.” Parrish muttered, but Stiles ignored him as he scanned the flyer. It’s for the California Amusement’s Carnival. At the very bottom is a list of all the cities they visit.

“Dad!” Stiles cried out and ran back to the Sheriff’s office, gripping onto the paper. Cora and Scott shrug their shoulders at Parrish and chase after him.

The Sheriff appeared at his door, “Stiles? What happened?”

“This is it” Stiles said pushing the flyer into the Sheriff’s hands. “The carnival. He’s either a part of it or has been following it. The cities at the bottom are the same ones the deaths are concentrated around and the dates match!”

The Sheriff examines the flyer and then nodded. “I’m going to look a little more into this and probably go call on them. You three are not coming.”

“But dad” Stiles started to whine.

“No. You are not coming with me for the official police work. If you guys want to attend the carnival, I can’t stop you. But” he added as Stiles’ face brightened “You three are still going home tonight. And if you do end up going to the carnival _tomorrow during the day_ , you’ll be careful, alright.”

“Of course!” Stiles replied innocently as possible, which isn’t much.

“Of course” he dad sighed, “Okay, you three home, now.”

“Night, Dad” Stiles said already drawing up plans in his head for tomorrow.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

The next day, the pack met right as the carnival was opening. It was held over by the park district’s sports fields. It was the only place in Beacon Hills that had clear enough open space. The soccer players were never happy when the carnival came to town because it destroyed their fields. The werewolves and their friends met over on the West side of the land, where all the food carts were stationed. Stiles could visibly see Scott and Isaac’s nostrils flare every other minute as they sniffed the aroma of deep fried food in the air. They kept arguing what they wanted to try first. Scott was leaning towards an elephant ear, and Isaac wanted a deep fried Twinkie.

“You two know we aren’t here to eat food. We have work to do.” Derek interrupted them gruffly.

“We know, but maybe we can get something on the go. You know, as we look. We can’t afford to get hungry on the job.” Scott said staring wistfully towards the food carts.

Derek glared at him. “Not if it’s going to clog your noses.”

“Don’t worry boys.” Lydia said. “I’m sure you can stuff your faces afterwards with all those very tasty treats.” She said the last part with a large fake smile.

“They do have frozen yogurt, Lydia” Allison said pointing to one particular food cart.

Lydia’s smile just widened. “Sweetie, if you think I’m going to get frozen yogurt here where I can already feel the health violations, you need to stop hanging out with the boys so much.” she said glancing at Scott and Isaac.

This time it was Cora who rolled her eyes. “Like we care.” she murmured. “Stiles, did you learn anything from your dad?”

“Not really. The manger didn’t have any idea what he was talking about and neither did the employees that he talked to. Dad said that they looked disgusted when they learned someone was eating their victims. He put as many people on patrol at the carnival as he could and alerted the surrounding towns of the situation.” Stiles gestures an x widely with his hands. “Not the windego part, but the there’s a cannibalistic murder on the lose following the carnival part.”

Scott nodded and then took over. “Most of the deaths have been at night after dark, so we were hoping that maybe he hangs out at the carnival in between eats.”

Stiles cut in. “Because no one had recalled the same customer repeating at all the cities, I’m guessing that he’s probably an employee. That or he follows the carnival, but avoids it completely, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

“Plus, we think the reason he fed in Beacon Hills, which is the only time he fed in the same town that the carnival was being held in, was because it traveled further than normal, and it probably didn’t stop with anytime for it to eat.” Cora added.

“Do we have any idea what this guy looks like?” Allison asks. “And we do know it’s a man, right?”

“Actually, we don’t.” Stiles explained. “All my dad could get out of the witness was the claws. It seems like he was too stricken by them and the dead body he as eating to notice anything else. You’re right. It could be anyone, man or woman.”

“You’d think living in Beacon Hills that they’d be used to it” Isaac remarked.

Stiles thinks of his dad’s story about the psychic or banshee who died in the car crash, and Lydia after she first saw Peter in the video parking lot.

“We all compartmentalize differently.” Stiles said shortly.

“So we know that it can transform and that it has claws.” Scott said, quickly butting it. It’s never a good idea to let Stiles and Isaac go at it. “I think it’ll be best if we all split up in pairs to see if we can find anything suspicious.”

“We’re an odd number.” Lydia states.

“I was thinking either Derek or I would go solo.” Scott said looking at Derek.

“I will” Derek answered.

“Figures” Stiles said under his breath. It earned him a snicker from Isaac and Cora and a glare from Derek.

“That’s fine. Just promise you’ll actually signal for help if you run into trouble.” Scott urged.

“Signal?” Derek asked.

“You know howl or something. If you have time, a phone call.” Scott explained. “Maybe you should take the food carts since the food doesn’t seem to affect you.” Derek huffed in annoyance. “Allison and Lydia can take the North end, Isaac and I will take the East, and “

Stiles held back a groan when he realized what Scott was doing.

“And Stiles and Cora can take the South, and we’ll all meet in the middle.”

“Don’t you think each pair should have a wolf?” Isaac asked eyeing Allison. Stiles tried hard not to roll his eyes. He’s pretty sure Scott had put him and Isaac together so neither one of them had to worry that the other was with Allison. Allison and Scott weren’t back together, and she and Isaac weren’t a thing yet either. Stiles wasn’t sure how Scott and Isaac managed to stay friends during their subtle competition for Allison.

“I think Allison can handle herself just fine. Don’t you?” Scott remarked. Allison smiled. Scott was learning, Stiles thought.

“Lydia can be scary when she wants to be, too” Allison added. That was certainly true. Lydia didn’t exactly pack a mean punch, but she was well informed on anatomy. She knew where to stab you or put pressure to cause just enough damage.

“Exactly.” Scott agreed. “Well gang, let’s do this.”

As they all headed onto the carnival grounds, Stiles wondered if Scott had started watching Scooby Doo again.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

As Stiles and Cora walked around the south end of the carnival, which housed a lot of the more thrilling rides, the more and more Stiles realized this was a really stupid plan. How were they going to find some random person amongst all these people? In theory, the werewolves would be able to sniff and sense the wendigo, but they still didn’t know exactly what it smelled like, so there was still a chance that they would completely miss it. Plus, Stiles thought sadly as they walked over to The Voyager, him and Cora could have had a lot of fun here. Part of him still wanted to bring her here, but he didn’t think she’d want to come for fun after all this was over. He didn’t want to ask her back to where they spent all hours looking and finding anything suspicious and causing her nose to wrinkle in disgust every time she breathed deeply. She probably never wanted to see this place again.

Stiles shoved his hands deep into his pockets as they went over to the attendant for The Voyager. As they had done previously at the other rides, Stiles asked the attendant questions about the ride and the safety requirements while Cora would sniff him or her out and then wander casually over to the employee running the ride and sniff him out. Just like before, Cora shook her head minutely after she finished and returned back to Stiles. No luck.

Cora rolled her eyes at the attendant, “Sorry about him. He just doesn’t know when to shut up” and then she started to drag Stiles away. “Come on, I want to actually enjoy some of the rides.”

Stiles easily followed, calling thanks back of his shoulder to the attendant. They had covered all of the attractions in the area, and had reached closer to the center to the carnival. The carnival was arranged with rides and food carts at the perimeters, then rows of games in a square surrounding the Ferris Wheel that sat at its very center.

Cora bumped into Stiles as they walked, heading towards the games. “What’s up with you?” she asked. “You’re spiels have gotten more and more falsely bright.”

Stiles shrugged. “We’re just not having much luck.”

Cora just looked at him, clearly waiting to hear more.

Stiles dug his hand even further into his pockets. “And it would be nice to be here under different circumstances. You know, actually enjoy the carnival. It’s a shocking concept, really.”

“So? Just come later with Scott. That’s what Derek and I will probably do.”

Stiles’ spirits sink even lower. Of course, she would’ve wanted to come to the carnival, and, of course, she’s going to go with her brother. He forced out a laugh. “I wasn’t planning on coming here with Scott. He hates the rides and always spends his time between the food and the games. Not that they aren’t awesome, but c’mon! How can you miss out on The Zipper or the Fireball!”

Cora smiled. “The Sky Drop has always been my favorite.” She confessed. “If you weren’t going to come here with Scott who were you going to come with? Your Dad? Lydia?” Stiles can’t help but notice that her smile disappeared when she asks about Lydia. He wondered if it’s because she just doesn’t like Lydia or if Scott’s right and she’s jealous. He figures it won’t hurt to tell the truth. It’s not like you can’t go to a carnival as friends, right?

“Actually, I was going to ask if you wanted to come with me.” He didn’t look at her, but stared straight ahead. This way, he though, he minimized the possibility of blushing too much.

“Really?” Cora doesn’t sound mad or annoyed. If anything, Stiles thought, she sounded hopeful. Stiles carefully nodded, still not looking at her. “Like as a date?” She asked in the same voice.

Stiles stopped and whipped his head to look at her. She’s actually smiling, so not mad at all, then. “Yeah,” he admitted, his voice breaking a little. “As a date.”

“Good.” she stated and then headed over to the first game booth.

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

________________________________________________________________________

 

They’d gone through the first two booths, when Cora grabbed Stiles’ left arm and stopped him. “Something’s different.” she told him eying the next booth.

“How different? Like I should be texting Scott different?”

“I’m not sure yet” Cora cautiously moved ahead to game. Stiles pulled out his phone and sent Scott a quick text saying they might be onto something at The Duck Pond.

“One dollar per turn” An over weight man grunted at Cora as she stepped up to the front of the booth. She narrowed her eyes at him, and Stiles came up behind her. He looked over her shoulder and around the back of the booth, but he doesn’t see anything suspicious. There’s only a teenage girl at the back organizing the prizes. Luckily, it’s the last booth in the row, so Stiles left Cora to snoop around the back. As he walked around the corner, the girl comes out of the booth.

“Hi!” Stiles nearly shouted at her.

She glanced over at him, amused. “Hello.”

“Have you worked at the carnival long?” he asked wondering if it’s really necessary to stall her. If she really was part of what put Cora on edge.

“A bit. Sort of the family business” she answered.

“Ah. Is that –” Stiles stopped as he hears Cora honest to god growl and he wondered what the hell was happening. “You know what, I left my friend, and I should really get back to her,” he said turning around. As he moved forward, he felt five sharp points on his neck and another five sharp points on his back.

“I don’t think so.” The girl said sweetly from behind him. “You look good enough to eat.”

Stiles groaned. “Seriously? That’s what you’re going with? I think you might need a better catchphrase.” He saw Cora walk around to the back of the booth, her eyes are already glowing amber. “Hi, Cora.” He said brightly.

“They’re both wendigos. The man is too.” She informed him while staring at the girl, and the overweight man stepped out of the booth as well.

“Great! He must be the family you were talking about” Stiles asked glancing down where he can see part of the girl’s arm and hand. “Is he your dad?”

“Uncle. My father was killed along with my mother.” She must also transform to have some sort of fangs, Stiles realized. She spoke directly into his ear, and he could feel sharp points drag from his earlobe to his neck. He was pretty sure she was salivating as wet liquid dripped down his neck. He grimaced as it pooled its way along his shirt collar.

“That sucks. My mom died too. Wasn’t murder, but you know. It’s not fun. You know what’s also not fun? Having your claws to my neck. Do you think you could just put those down?”

The girl growled in response, which led to Cora growling back and her nails popping out. The man then started to transform. His eyes turned to a dark blue and all his teeth got notably sharper. His skin took on a grayish-blue hue and he had a thicker layer of hair develop on the top of his arms and down to his very long claws. Their claws weren’t like the werewolves, but skinnier and longer. They were almost like a smaller version Edward Scissor Hands.

“So, that’s what a wendigo looks like.” Stiles said staring at him.

“Stiles” Cora barked at him.

“Yeah?”

“You good?”

He went to nod and then remembered that it probably wasn’t such a good idea with claws on his throat.

“I’m good.” He affirmed.

Cora went after the man, punching him square in the gut at the same time that Stiles used his left arm to pull the girl’s arm away from his neck and proceeds to flip her in front of him feeling her claws scratch up his back as he did so.

She landed on her feet and snarled at him. Stiles snarled back, or attempted to anyways. She grinned, and Stiles’ gaze is drawn to her teeth. Her very many and very pointy teeth. He glanced over to Cora and the Uncle. Cora had claw marks across the left side of her face, but the uncle wasn’t moving too fast as they fought up against each other. The man was making use of his claws while Cora depended on her fists, and she managed to crowd him against the back of the booth.

The girl eyed Cora and her uncle nervously and then shifted back to her human features and took off deep into the carnival. Stiles went to chase after her, but Cora beat him to it, abandoning the man

“Cora! Wait!” Stiles called after her and then turned to the very angry wendigo. “Um, nice doggy?” He expected the wendigo to pounce but instead his features melt away to human as well, and he takes off running.

“Dammit,” Stiles muttered and started to chase after him, but stopped when he hears his name called behind him. He turns around to see Scott already shifted and his eyes glowing red, which is why the uncle must have run. He could barely handle a beta, let alone an alpha.

“You should call your dad” Scott told him. “We’ll continue tracking them and one of us will be in contact with you. You should also get someone to put some antiseptic on your back. The scratches aren’t deep, but”

“But who knows where those claws have been” Stiles said picturing the corpse from last night. “Fine. Make sure you answer your phone!” he called after Scott as he took off into the crowd, already shifted back to human.

Stiles pulled out his phone. “Dad? We found them. We’re at the carnival and the pack is chasing them westward, last I saw. They’re in human shapes right now. There’s a 40 year old man, Caucasian, with balding brown hair. He’s overweight, probably about 250 pounds and about six foot. Then there’s a teenage girl about sixteen, 140 pounds, and she’s just shorter than the guy. She has long, straight blonde hair that goes down to her shoulder blades. They’re uncle and niece.”

“Jesus.” His dad responded. “Is everyone alright?”

“Yeah, we’re fine. Nothing Cora won’t heal from, and I have some shallow scratches, but I’m fine.”

“Stiles, head over straight to the first-aid tent. No stopping, just go straight there. I’ll alert my deputies. I’ll see you soon, kid.”

Stiles frowned at his phone before trekking over to the first-aid tent. This really wasn’t how he pictured this would go down, but considering those claws had been dug deep into human remains, he should probably get his back taken care of. He wondered how he was going to explain this to first-aid attendant.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

Stiles was pretty bummed out by the end of the day. His dad sent Deputy Parrish to collect him from the First-Aid tent and bring him to Mrs. McCall at the hospital. Stiles had pushed Parrish for information about the murder suspects, but Parrish insisted that he didn’t know anything.

When Stiles found Melissa, she sighed deeply and muttered something about gray hairs. After she took him to a station, she approved the work that the First-Aid tent for his scratches and then drew blood (he may have passed out after that, but, hey, she drew a lot of blood). Stiles lost track, or at least stopped caring enough to figure out the number of tests she did, but, eventually, he was declared uninfected by the wendigo. That was probably the one good thing that happened. He didn’t somehow get a weird disease or something equally ridiculous.

Now, he was sitting at the waiting room that was near Melissa’s desk (which she is actually at for once and not running around the hospital) waiting for his dad to pick him up. He called each pack member at least twice and not one of them had answered their phones. If Melissa hadn’t been on the phone with his dad half an hour ago, he would be worried. But after what he saw at the carnival, he’s pretty sure that the pack is able to have the wendigos beat.

He was angrily typing out a text message to Scott when his dad walked down the hallway. The Sheriff barely nodded to Stiles before heading directly over to Melissa.

“Of course,” Stiles muttered wondering if anything was actually happening between them. He doubted it. His dad has never seemed to be able to get past his mom, and he still wears his wedding ring. Stiles didn’t want his dad to forget his mom, but it would be nice if is dad was happy like he once was. And if that meant him falling in love with Melissa – well, she was already family.

As much as he wanted to know what happened on the wendigo front, Stiles slowly made his way to the desk, hoping to give the Sheriff and Melissa more time together.

“So what happened? Did you guys catch the wendigos?” Stiles asked as soon as he reached the desk (okay, so he wasn’t the most patient).

Melissa took a quick look around them and then said, “Murder suspects, Stiles. You don’t want to be calling them anything else too loudly. They might put you in the psych ward.”

“If it was only that easy,” the Sheriff joked as he turned towards Stiles. “Yeah, we got them, and they’re behind bars. Now, let’s go get some dinner and go home.”

Stiles sputtered. “That’s it? We got them? I’ve been here for like two hours waiting for you. You’ve got to give me more than that. I haven’t heard from anyone since I talked to you at the carnival."

“Fine, but only if we walk and talk. I’m hungry. Goodbye, Melissa and thank you.” The Sheriff said heading towards the elevator.

“So? The wendigos?” Stiles prompted when they enter the empty elevator.

“My deputies got Carl, the uncle, at the carnival. He didn’t even manage to exit the grounds. Sarah, the girl, on the other, hand managed to avoid them. Your pack chased her all the way to the preserve. From what I know, Cora temporarily lost her in the carnival’s parking lot, because Sarah stole a car to get away. But, Cora and Derek weren’t far behind and they know the forest better than she does. I’m pretty sure Scott made sure to drag her further into the forest to avoid attention and suspicion. Both Cora and Derek were holding her when I reached them, and there must have been a bit of a scuffle because Sarah has a few broken ribs and some scratches across her arm.”

The elevator stopped on the main floor and the Stilinskis exited the elevator.

“That’s it?” Stiles asked incredulously and gesturing wildly. “I’ve been here without any contact for two hours because they chased her to the forest?”

“I had to do my job, Stiles. Not only did we arrest and process them, I also had the entire pack come down to the station to make a statement and figure out how to connect them to the murders without the supernatural element. Then, I also called the other towns of the previous murders to update them of the situation.” The Sheriff explained as they exited the hospital

“So, I was stuck here because I got hurt?” Stiles asked using quotations around the word hurt.

“You would have been just as bored at the station. It’s not like you were going to interview the wendigos.”

Stiles sighed knowing his dad was right, and he had no desire to be the reason that his dad loses his Sheriff position once again. “It would’ve been nice to know that everyone was alright.” He mumbled.

The Sheriff eyed him. “You’re right. Someone should’ve called you, and I’m sorry about that. We just got a little distracted. How about Jerry’s for dinner?” He asked they climbed into the car.

“Are you sorry enough that you’ll get a veggie burger?”

“Not a chance” the Sheriff replied and they pull out of the parking lot. He doesn’t get the veggie burger, but he does get a grilled chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries. At least it’s progress, Stiles thought.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

Stiles was pulling out his homework when the doorbell rings. He got up from the kitchen table to answer the front door. To his surprise, Cora stood on the other side smiling and wearing _really short_ shorts. Stiles can’t help but let his eyes drift up her fit and tan legs.

“At least you’re not looking at my boobs” Cora said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Stiles jerked his head up to meet her eyes. “No! I wouldn’t. Well, actually I would, but that’s because. You know what? Nevermind. Hi. What are you doing here?”

“I’m taking you to the carnival.”

Stiles stared at her waiting for the punch line, but it never comes. “I’m sorry, what?”

“We are going to the carnival.” Cora said slowly.

Stiles felt like he was missing something here. “Why?”

Cora frowned at him. “I thought you wanted to. You said yesterday that you wanted to take me there on a date, so I’m taking you. Or, I’m trying to.”

“You want to take me to the carnival on a date?” Stiles asked to make sure he understood Cora correctly.

“Yes!” Cora replied exasperated.

“I –“ Stiles drawed out as he looks at her. She looked good. She’s not dressed too differently than normal (except for those shorts, which, _damn_ ), but he doesn’t think he’s ever seen her look so happy and relaxed before. He thought back to their homework nights and wondered if they balance one another more than he thought. If she wanted to go on a date with him, he wasn’t going to push it. “Okay.” He finished and slipped on his shoes by the door.

“It better be.” Cora said leading the way down the driveway. “Oh, and I’m driving.”

Stiles followed her gaze and saw the Camaro sitting in front of the house.

“I thought you got rid of that”

“No way. Derek was just too worried that something was going to happen to it. So, he got the Toyota to deal with danger, which means.” Cora said as she unlocked the car and slid onto the driver’s seat. “It’s free for me to drive. Hold on”

Stiles had barely closed the door when Cora started the ignition and gunned forward. My dad can never see Cora drive, he thought dumbly as they sped through town.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

Thankfully, besides the deputies who gave Stiles and Cora weird looks, everything at the carnival was perfectly normal and ordinary. There were no wendigos silently seeking them out for revenge. Stiles and Cora had decided to hit up the rides first, sticking to the more thrilling ones. As they waited in line for the Voyager, Cora told Stiles the same story of catching the wendigos that his dad had the other day. When Stiles told her that the girl had gotten a couple ribs broken, she only shrugged and said it was nothing that she didn’t deserve. During the Zipper, they clutched hands, and Cora tried to coax Stiles to open his eyes, which he kept firmly kept shut. Cora would laugh and Stiles would scream every time they plummeted towards the ground on the Sky Drop. Stiles may have agreed to ride it over and over again, just to hear Cora laugh as they went down.

As they waited in line for the Fireball, Stiles noticed that Cora didn’t talk anymore than she usually did, which was fine because Stiles could talk enough for the both of them, but she did seemed more open. The sun shone bright in her eyes, and she was smiling more often than not. She no longer held herself with stiff, correct posture, but her shoulders were curved a little in relaxation.

He wasn’t sure if she was a different girl he met a couple months ago or if he had just learned to see her how she truly was. His first impression of her was that she reminded him of Derek: silent, strong and pessimistic. As they dealt with the Alpha pack, he found her to be more blunt and straightforward. She wasn’t very talkative, but she wasn’t silent either. He would’ve never dared to touch her for the risk of her using her werewolf strength on him. But now, as Cora stood close to his side, he closed the distance and slid his arm around her back. She doesn’t look at him, but smiled anyways and leaned further into his touch.

She was still blunt and straightforward, but Stiles no longer saw it in a negative light. It helped move things along, especially his own rambling self. He could believe her when she tells him something, and not worry if she meant something totally different. There were never any worries about it meaning something else. She was also quick on her feet, literally and mentally, and kept up with Stiles’ thought process as he bounced around ideas. But, her lack of words reminded him that silence was golden, and it was okay not to talk sometimes. Like now, Stiles mused rubbing his fingers gently over Cora’s side. He wasn’t trying to keep up with his brain and spew conversation at the same time, but could take in the moment with Cora as they waited in line.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

By the time they’ve ridden every thrill ride the carnival had to offer, Cora was rolling her eyes at Stiles’s stomach rumbling and pulling him by his hand over to the food carts. When they stopped in front of a cart that says “NAME A FRY, ANY FRY,” she didn’t let go of his hand, so he squeezed her gently and kept her close. Stiles ordered curly fries and Cora demanded a different carnival treat, corn dogs. The vendor at “HAWT DAWGS” sold Cora two corn dogs and some cheese sauce. Stiles beamed at her when she handed him one of the corn dogs.

“This is for you.” She explained before biting into her own.

“Oh, thanks.” He bit off a huge chunk of it and then asked, “How did you know I liked corn dogs?”

She stared at him unimpressed, but that might be because he had asked that around a full mouth of food. He huffed, or at least tried to but almost ends up choking, before he dutifully chewed, swallowed, and then talked.

“Happy?” he asked.

She only shook her head. “Andyou make wolf jokes about us.” Then, _she_ _proceeded to take one of his curly fries and dip into her cheese sauce and eat it._

“Woah, woah, woah! What do you think you’re doing” Stiles cried jerking away from her and shoving the fry carton close to his chest.

“Eating some fries.” Cora explained with her eyebrow raised.

“I don’t share curly fries.” Stiles stated dumbly.

Cora’s eyes flash amber and then she smiled. “Not even with me?”

Stiles thought she trying to sound innocent, but she wasn’t not even close, and he can’t help but laugh.

“I don’t even share my curly fries with Scott.” Stiles paused and worried his lip in between his teeth. “And I won’t share them with just any werewolf, but I guess I’ll share them with you.” He narrowed in on her sauce. “If you promise to share the cheese sauce.”

Cora snorted and held out her hand with the cheese sauce. “I’m honored.”

Stiles dumped some of his fries into the cheese. “You should be.” He informed her. He moaned around the mouthful of fries. “The only thing better than curly fries is cheesy curly fries.” He said dipping more in the sauce.

Cora smirked. “I know.” And then she stole some more fries.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

After they finish eating, they wandered over to the center of the carnival where the games were held. Stiles was telling Cora about the pranks that he and Scott had pulled off on Coach Finstock over the past couple years, when he comes to an abrupt halt in front of One Ball. Hanging up by the prizes was a stuffed wolf.

“I have to get that for you” Stiles said and dug into his pockets to pull out some cash.

“I don’t need a stuffed wolf.”

“Why, do you have one?” Stiles asked as counted out his singles. Cora shook her head.

“No”

“Then, you have to have one. A werewolf needs a wolf.” Stiles handed his cash over to the game attendant who gave him a softball in exchange.

“I do not. And you’re not going to win, anyways”

“Hey! Don’t doubt my awesomeness.”

Cora eyed the attendant and the game shrewdly. “I meant that the game is fixed.”

“I’m going to get the wolf you. Just watch.” Stiles promised as he wound up and aimed to hit the bottom of the stacked milk jugs. The softball hit its mark, but only one of the bottom ones and the top one fall over.

“Let me try again.” Stiles demanded while searching for more money.

Cora sighed and pulled out some of her own money. “Fools like you are how they make money at these things.” She handed her money to the attendant.

“So you’re playing to prove that you’re right?” Stiles snarked at her.

Cora only grinned. “You’re forgetting I have a few unfair advantages.” She threw the ball right in the middle of the pyramid and the softball makes a loud THWACK when it bounces off the back of the booth. She asked for the wolf and then presents him to Stiles.

“For you. Now you can have a wolf of your own.”

Stiles beamed. “You won me a stuffed animal.” He said softly as he takes it and hugs it against his chest.

“I’d win you whatever you’d like” Cora said casually before quickly diverting her eyes. Stiles flushed with pleasure. “Are you going to fight all my battles for me too?” He asked.

Cora looked at him. “No, I don’t think you need help with that. You can take care of yourself.” She moved closer so that they’re standing toe to toe. Stiles noticed that she’s not too much shorter than him, and her lips closer to his than he thought they would be.

He swallowed thickly. “You don’t either.”

“No, but I don’t mind having you near” Cora explained softly her lips brushing up on his chin when she talked. Stiles tried to ignore his thundering heart as he tilt his head down to meet her lips with his. They’re warm and soft to the touch and cause him to tingle with good energy. He slowly leaned more into the kiss and brought his hand up to her the back of her head and her hands slid up his stomach to his chest and stop at the nape of his neck.

Cora pulled back gently and took his hand in her. “C’mon let’s see what other games I can beat with my strength.”

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

Stiles and Cora split their money for Cora to play at any games where the prizes look promising. She won a hot pink gorilla, a groovy hat, a plush Spider-man, a three-foot banana, and a yellow and green striped snake. They spent the rest of their time picking out which kids they walked past deserved to have Cora’s winnings (Stiles was so keeping the wolf). When they finally passed the hat onto a toddler asleep in her parent’s arms, it was already dark and getting late. They agreed to one last ride before heading home, the Ferris Wheel.

Stiles and Cora climbed into the cart squishing themselves down on the same side. The view was pretty spectacular with the lights of the carnival surrounding them on all sides. Stiles wrapped his left arm around her shoulders, and Cora melted into his side and even leaned her own head against his shoulder. When they reached about a quarter way up, Cora broke their peaceful silence.

“I wasn’t kidding, you know.”

“About what?”

“That you can fight your own fights. Sometimes I forget that because you’re not a werewolf, but you can. And, I should know that. I’ve seen you at training, and you’ve helped save my life. But yesterday.” She paused and started picking at stray thread on her shirt. Stiles reached over with his right hand and took it in his. She sighed and glanced up at him. “Yesterday scared me. When I saw her with her claws on you, my first instinct was to attack her. I wanted to jump her and get her away from you. I didn’t think you’d get out of it, and I thought I’d lose you. I really didn’t like that feeling.”

Stiles stroked his thumb in circles over her hand. “Honestly, I wasn’t even scared yesterday.”

“Show off” Cora mumbled.

“No, I mean I didn’t feel the need to be scared.” Stiles explained. “I was a little, because, hello, ten very sharp things slightly digging into my skin, but I wasn’t scared for my life. I knew you were there and the rest of the pack wasn’t too far away. I had faith in you. I trust you with my life.”

“I trust you too” Cora replied. It should be a given, considering he had preformed CPR on her twice, but it sounded much more important than that. It sounded full of promise and possibilities of a future that Stiles wanted to see. Stiles leaned down and kissed her softly before licking his way into her mouth. They didn’t see the rest of the view after that.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for Reading!
> 
> You can find me on tumblr under the same name. 
> 
> Come say hi!


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